On May 20, 2006 The Gathering concert in Philadelphia features local musicians Orbital Decay and The Ministry Of Inside Things. Both groups are synth/guitar duos. The event was a benefit for the The Corporation for Innovative Music and Arts of Pennsylvania, the non-profit corporation that puts on The Gatherings. See the concert's web site. This was a good concert.

Orbital Decay, Terry Furber (synths) and Scott Watkins (guitar), were in excellent form. Terry and Scott's music washes over the audience in rich waves of textures. Their set was one continuous piece - one hypnotic evolving ambient sonic experience. Terry's setup is 100% analog - most gear is vintage but he does use a new Moog Voyager. The sound is always warm.

I've seen Orbital Decay perform many times. I try to make their every performance. Terry prepares a new DVD to use for each performance. They use the video as a musical score. Unlike many space music groups which put up a video and play, Orbital Decay makes the video an integral part of the experience.

I was knocked out at the synchronization between the music and video. Orbital Decay does this better than anyone else I've ever seen. There were dramatic events on the screen with perfectly synchronized sounds. One would think the DVD had an audio track that was used as a backing track, but that would be incorrect - checked, the DVD played didn't have anything connected to it but video out. Terry and Scott play everything live - no backing tracks - nothing prerecorded. Many times during this performance I could see audience members looking at each other in amazement.

Not only is the synchronization amazing, but so is the video itself. The imagery moves from huge spacescapes to microscopic views of forest moss. Terry's videos are as good as they get.

Orbital Decay is going to play at electro-music 2006 on June 4th. If you can, do yourself a favor and go see them. Terry is putting together a special video just for the big event. Orbital Decay's CDs are for sale here on the electro-music.com store too. Get them.

The Ministry of Inside Things consists of synthesist Chuck van Zyl and electric guitarist Art Cohen. Chuck and Art are the prime movers behind The Gatherings concerts. Chuck is the host of the well know Stars End radio program on WXPN. They played several pieces, some from their new CD and some not yet released. The Ministry has their own style of space music which is very clean and transparent but I wouldn't call it minimalist. Chuck and Art have built up a large following and they loved every minute of their performance.

Jeff Townes put on a very spectacular laser light show during The Ministry's performance. It was very beautiful.

All in all, this was another excellent concert as I've come to expect from The Gatherings. Unfortunately, I think the sound reinforcement system was insufficient. There were many times during the evening that I wished it would have been louder, especially during Orbital Decay's set.

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